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»Elephant Tree

The Elephant Tree is the University’s literary journal for the publication of student-created poetry and fiction.

Symbolically, the elephant tree has distinct significance. The trees are native to Southern California; they are known to be both rare and resilient, and grow in distinctive, sculptural forms. Their flowers are small but star-shaped, bursting forth in white or cream colors. The tree's red sap was once thought to be a panacea--a medicine that allegedly cures all disease and prolongs life indefinitely.

All Chapman students are invited to submit their work, not just those in the Creative Writing or English programs. The Elephant Tree editors are all graduate and undergraduate students who apply for the job each year. Further details on the submission and application process are below, along with PDF files of past issues.

+-Submission Guidelines

The deadline for submissions is early December; submissions are read in January and February. The journal's faculty advisor, Tom Zoellner, will constitute the editorial board for each year's issue, often with input from other faculty within the Department of English.

The deadline to apply for editor positions is also in early December. Applications should be submitted to the journal's faculty advisor.

Since the journal editors are also writers, and because editors are individually chosen for each editorial position, editors are allowed to submit creative work for the board's review. Therefore, an editor may also be a contributor to an issue.

Elephant Tree prints roughly 200 copies in April. These copies are freely distributed, with all published authors receiving at least one print copy of the journal.

After print publication, the journal's contents are made
available online.

+-Online Editions

Click on the images below to read the files for each of Elephant Tree’s publications since its inception in 2006: